11 for ’12: Gene Norman asks, “Where is the best weather in America?”

On the cusp of 2012, I’ve invited 11 of the greater Houston area’s top minds to contemplate the world’s end. Lightheartedly I’ve asked them, before the Mayan apocalypse, for the one burning question that they’d like to see answered before the cataclysm. A new entry in the 11 for ’12 series will be published each morning during the holidays.

You’ve probably all read the dire predictions about the end of the world; they’re posted prominently on the front pages of checkout tabloids. Expect more of these countdowns to doomsday in the New Year because according to the Mayan calendar, December 21, 2012 really is the end.

Hey, I’m still trying to nail the 7-day outlook, so I’m not quite ready to buy into that.

However, the Mayans were quite precise what with all that free time and no Internet to distract them. I really hope they’re wrong because I enjoy my life, my family and the great Houston community which I call home.

As a transplanted New Yorker (I got here as fast I could), I have come to enjoy the diversity of Houston’s four seasons: July, August, summer and flooding.

Sure, we have the occasional handful of cold days and brief taste of winter, but for my money H-town has the best weather in the U.S.

That bold statement may cause as much confusion as my Norman Number, but that’s an essay for a different column. Growing up in the largest city of the world, I had a chip on my shoulder. In our living room in the Bronx, my parents proudly hung this familiar magazine cover depicting the world as viewed by New Yorkers:

New Yorker, March 29, 1976.

So, I grew up with this jaded view. But I did leave the nest to discover a world beyond the 5 boroughs, attending schools in Boston and Washington D.C. as well as a summer job at the National Hurricane Center in Miami. When I arrived in Houston 25 years ago, I was in awe of the open sky and the fact that it could be pouring on me, but I could see the dry pavement across the street.

I know people will argue that Southern California’s weather is more consistent year-round. However, they have earthquakes, which rule it out for me. The Pacific Northwest is just too wet and the plains are too dusty. Yes, we get an occasional threat from the Gulf, but I know how to work a generator and I’ll know when it’s coming.

Our spring and fall weather can be breath-taking and I get a kick out of calling my parents when they’re digging out of the latest Snowmageddon and its 70° in the Bayou City. Sure, the 7 months of summer are hot, but you do really get used to it and everything is air-conditioned down here. There are even drive-through dry cleaners.

Hands down, if anyone ever asks me where the best weather in the country is, I’ll steer them to this gentle bend of the Texas coast along the Gulf of Mexico.

To see other 11 for ’12 entries, click here. And you can click here see entries from the 11 for ’11 series that I published a year ago.

I have to agree, Dr. J. If I could afford to live anyplace else I’d be gone in a heartbeat. We just now are losing our two weeks of fall. Our month of winter is coming soon, followed by our month of spring. Then it’s hell on earth time again until next November. Please get me out of here.

Thanks Mr. Farley, I was in the same predicament until a few years ago and finally saved up enough to leave and live someplace nice, and missed the big 2008 hurricane (Ike?) by only a few months, I was lucky.

Yes, I would prefer Needles, or Tucson, or Scottsdale, etc. to Houston, but I like dry heat as long as shade exists, and swamp coolers work very well in those places too. I hate humidity, rusted everything, and moldy, smelly Gulf Coast stuff.

Well, Gene didn’t really address the specific question, but I am a Gene Norman fan and for me this so far has been the most enjoyable read among your 11 for ’12 responses. I love that old New Yorker cover.

I lived in Houston for four years – 1959 to 1962. I have lived in Mesa, Arizona, near Phoenix, for 23 years and I can tell you our weather is way, way better than Houston’s. It is almost paradise. We have maybe three light freezes during the winter. It is mostly 40′s to around 60. Once in a while it rains for a day. June is over a hundred degrees but the humidity so low with a bit of air stirring around it is not bad. July and August have higher humidity and I would like to do without those months but it is still far better than Houston. And we don’t have any gnats and most areas don’t have mosquitoes.

Ya know, when Buddy Ryan came to Houston to be the Defensive Coordinator for the Oilers, someone asked him if he was surprised by anything in Houston. Guess what, he said the weather was the best in the country. And he lived in all kinds of places. Just accept it man. Houston, surprisingly, has some pretty good weather. Summer can be pretty hot I know, but you just stay inside during the day. Summer nights are pretty good.

Yes, fall and spring can be some of the absolutely the best weather anywhere on the planet. But those days are made so wonderful BECAUSE of the nasty stuff before and after.

I live in a place now where we have colder winters. But the lack of humidity makes it nicer than a Houston winter. 40 degrees in Houston is MISERABLE. 40 degrees here…… not so bad! I scrape ice off my windshield here much less often than I did in Houston……. less moisture in the air=less crap all over the windows!!

And don’t get me started on the summer!!! Here if I go and stand in the shade it is actually cooler (noticeably cooler) where in Houston it is just HOT everywhere.

I moved away from Houston to be closer to my extended family, but frankly, the weather is what keeps me here……. or rather keeps me away from Houston!!

As a native Houstonian, I love the enthusiasm and embrace of your home. However, after living in San Diego for 7 years, I can state without doubt that San Diego has the best weather in the world. It’s 70 degrees today without a cloud in the sky, eerily simmilar to the weather in August. But Houstonians take comfort, in Southern California we pay for this weather.

I live in Huntington Beach but also grew up in Houston. Yes, SoCal is great….along the coastal areas. But, go inland 10-20 miles and it can be much hotter or colder! So, in that weird way, Houston might be better. But San Diego is number 1 for sure for great year-round weather!

I’d say southern California. They seem to have consistently moderate temperatures, and most of their disasters (mudslides, earthquakes, wildfires) are more attributable to geographic and geologic factors than to the weather.

If it’s year-round warm weather you are looking for, Florida is a better bet than Houston. Florida has alot more to see and do and a huge Atlantic ocean coast. However, for warm weather and a pleasant area, I think I would choose Savannah Georgia or a nice little town on the coast of the Carolinas.

For weather variety (if you want variety) and a place that offers alot of outdoor opportunities, I would choose Boulder Colorado.

I do not know what I’m going to do with Summer 2012. This last one about killed me. I COULD NOT sleep for months, because my house was 92 degrees + until at least 2AM. It had to be dark for HOURS before my house would really cool. We need the shorter days in the summer please.

I’m lovin the weather now, and praying for a LONG Winter/Spring season.

92 degrees + until at least 2AM? Not trying to sound harsh, but that is not a healthy environment for anyone especially for the elderly and young children. I would invest in a air conditioner for your home. Makes a world of difference for your comfort. Even a small window unit will work OK to keep your body cool. Now, if you already have A/C and it’s that hot, I would find a different HVAC company.

One of the best places I have been is Hannagan
Meadow, Arizona connected by a 60 mile drive
south to Clifton, AZ on the south. That 60 mile
drive is so bad that a big school bus can’t
drive it, and it takes 2 hours to negotiate
in a pickup all on paved roads.

Elk graze among the pines in the Meadow in the
summer and Clifton, pop. ~3000, is so warm and dry in the
winter that it stays quite pleasant.

I love the weather here, apart from the hurricanes (and the recent drought). But it’s interesting that the only thing separating “great” from “hellish nightmare” is A/C. We’re entirely technology based. It’s almost pioneering.

I really don’t think the weather here is half bad. Yes, it’s hot in the summer, but summer is supposed to be hot. The fall and spring we have quite a few beautiful days and the winter is very short and still quite mild. I grew up in Oklahoma where the winter can be COLD with ice and snow, summer is just as HOT as Houston and the spring has severe weather and the wind seems to always blow. Sure Houston’s weather is not near as nice as southern California, but unlike southern California I can afford a nice house here.

Give me a break; two months of “good” weather does not make Houston the best weather in America. Sure it is if you like melting in the sun six months a year, freezing for two, and putting up with air full of allergens and toxic chemicals year-round. What a “fluff” piece this is.

I have lived in the northwest, West, southwest, midwest, South, and East Coast and I have been here in Houston for 3 years now. I do love the weather here. Granted, August and September are brutal, and the end of december until the begining of February can get some cold spells, but what does that leave; 8-9 months of awesome weather. I do like hot though, so some people arent fans of hot so I can see there point. The “fallwinter” is just long enough so it doesnt seem like one warm season, but not so long that your depressed and slumbering along. And I dont know what it is is about the humidity here, but it doesnt bother me, It is very rare that there
isnt atleast a breeze. When I lived in North Carolina and Mississsipi the humidity was so horribly thick and stagnant. And I dont buy the dry heat versus humidity argument. My rule is if it is below 90 I like dry heat, but above 90 and I prefer a a lot of moisture in the air. The humidity here makes me think of salt water and I love that. I also prefer the swings that we have here, cold, moderate, hot. When your in a place that is always moderate, it gets mundane, and it also affects the culture of the place, which can at times be a huge plus, but I like our dynamics here in Houston.

Houston has good weather??????? NFW. SoCal is the best by far. People like this author who make dumb pronouncements like “Houston has the best weather” wreak of political disingenuous focus. Because there is no way anyone with half a brain cd make that statement. If you’re talking skyscrapers, restaurants and freeways, Houston is near the top…but weather????? HAHAHAHA

Well, I sort of agree. I grew up in Houston and I miss those great kite flying days of March and April. I also can attend to seeing it rain only on one side of the street! Where else does that happen. On my wedding day, a horrible but small storm brewed up over the Galleria and dumped a ton on rain so much that we has 3 feet of water in the streets yet no other part of Houston even got a drop of rain! Fall can be really nice as well. I kind of miss the humidity too. I have lived since in Baltimore for 10 years (too long of winter), 18 wet months in Bellingham, WA (did I mentioned it spits rain all day long most days), and now Huntington Beach, CA. Needless to say, the very best weather is in Southern CA. But Houston is pretty close to being “just right”. And remember, SoCal’s good weather is only along the coastal areas. Go inland 10 miles and its all different! Great story!

You all need to get an attitude check or get the hell out I’ll never live north of i10 again. I’ve lived all over the world and I love Houston in all respects- the whole gulf coast has the best food and most entertaining and enjoyable people on earth. The weather is great as long as you stay close to the coast

Anything north of i10 in the us is way too cold for way too long.

Socal is way too cold, the water is freezing, so it doesnt match Houston even if it weren’t full of californians.

All of you folks who say Anywhere, Arizona has better weather than Houston baffle me. Aside from the dry skin, airborne silicates, and EXTREMELY HOT summers where it warps structures and scars car paint, I guess you guys must have other reasons to like it over there.

whatever. All you clowns that don’t like it GTFO. I was born and raised here. I went to school without A/C, I remember layin’ on my Grandmother’s cool wood floor under the attic fan in the hall and gettin’ chilled in the summer in Deer Park. This town is overrun with clowns that hate it, feel free to get out and stay out. Some of us were born here, live here, and will die here. We’d enjoy it a hell of a lot more if you haters weren’t here.